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Farmington Hills-based Aco Hardware, which in January announced it would transition its stores in two phases to Ace Hardware stores, today said it would close three stores rather than convert them and a distribution center.

Aco also announced it will begin the second phase of rebranding of its stores to Great Lakes Ace locations, with all 49 of the Ace stores to be converted by mid-August, Mark VandenBerg, president of Great Lakes Ace Hardware and Aco Inc. said in a statement.

In January, the home and hardware store chain announced it was joining Ace and began the initial rebranding at 26 stores.

Six of those stores have opened and six locations will open Saturday —in Clinton Township, Roseville, St. Clair Shores, Sterling Heights, Warren and Waterford.

There will be 100 Ace stores in Southeast Michigan by the end of this year, according to an Aco news release.

To prepare for the transition to Ace, Aco will hold storewide sales at the 23 locations beginning today. Those locations will close between mid-June and the end of July for the conversions, VandenBerg said.

SB Capital Group LLC has been retained to operate transitional sale events in the Aco store locations.

The store closings announced today will be in Tecumseh, Saline and Dearborn, and will affect about 40 employees, who will have the option to apply for openings at other locations, said VandenBerg. Last year, Aco closed 14 of its Michigan stores.

Additionally, Aco will close a distribution center in Farmington Hills, where 33 are employed.

Aco was originally founded as Trasko Brothers Hardware Depot in 1946 in Dearborn.

Ace has more than 4,800 locally owned and operated hardware stores across the globe, making it the largest hardware cooperative in the industry, the company said in a release.